Free Republic

Thune last week dismissed the possibility of nuking the filibuster as a “bad idea," but on Thursday night President Donald Trump urged the Senate to use the tactic. Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office on Friday indicated that the leader's position has not changed on whether to use the nuclear option to bypass the filibuster and end the government shutdown, despite pressure from the White House.Thune last week dismissed the possibility of nuking the filibuster as a “bad idea," but on Thursday night President Donald Trump urged the Senate to use the tactic, which would circumvent Democratic opposition to...

Laura Torrent did not know that the tiny brown bat she caught in early 2024 would become a global milestone for biodiversity and conservation. She had suspected the small creature, caught during an expedition in Equatorial Guinea, could match a mysterious bat specimen collected more than 30 years ago, but it would take months of work and scientific review to confirm. That bat — which Torrent dubbed Pipistrellus etula — marks the 1,500th species of bat to be discovered. Bats are the second-most diverse group of mammals. Of the more than 6,800 mammal species known to scientists today, bats make...

In an interview last weekend, Kamala Harris predicted that someday there would be a woman in the White House. She then hinted it might be her: “I am not done,” she said. To which America collectively sighed, “Please, for the love of God, don’t do this to us again!” I say this as someone who rode the Harris rollercoaster. I was skeptical at first, then briefly impressed when she didn’t implode in the summer of 2024. Ultimately, we received a brutal reminder of why President Trump is still the equivalent of a political wrecking ball. But this isn’t just about...

I just stumbled across this. Apparently Trey Yesavage follows all the right people on social media from our side (Charlie Kirk, Trump, etc) but of course the left has found this out and are now throwing him shade or whatever. Honestly what this kid did in game 5 was quite amazing but as usual the left brings their "joy" to any occasion and well you know. This is a 13 minute clip of a podcast on YouTube showing the grisly details. The second part talks about changing the lyrics of the Canadian anthem.

“Having your own opinions is one thing. Voting against the party on every single issue, you’re eventually going to make too many enemies, and that is the problem that Thomas has had,” Vance told the crowd. “It’s not one issue. It’s not three or four issues. It’s that every time that we’ve needed Thomas for a vote, he has been completely unwilling to provide it,” he said. “It’s because we can never count on him for some of the most difficult votes. I wish that that weren’t the case. I say that as somebody who’s known Thomas well before I...

In the publication’s 70th anniversary issue, the magazine undercut its own important legacy by attacking one of the right’s biggest icons.National Review is turning 70. The legacy of that publication is hard to sum up, but suffice it to say, its impact on American politics has been enormous, and it’s one I certainly feel personally. I worked there for a couple of years, and I was very grateful for the job and the experience it gave me. My tenure at NR only overlapped with the last few months of William F. Buckley’s life, though I had met him once earlier...

Early voting in New Jersey’s hotly contested governor’s race between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill has given her a healthy head start in banked ballots. But Republicans are easily outperforming their early 2021 turnout in the last gubernatorial election — when Ciattarrelli narrowly lost to Democrat Phil Murphy by just 84,000 votes. If GOP voters keep up the pace, Election Night will be a nail-biter. In the first five days of early voting, 825,382 New Jerseyans cast mail-in and in-person ballots in the marquee race: 449,190 Democrats, 230,907 Republicans and 145,285 independents. That means Republicans must close a...

When the US government shuts down, the snacks run out and the beat drops harder than the economy. Watch Missy T McMuffin turn fiscal chaos into a full-on food-fight anthem

Is Greyhound Really Going Out of Business? Debunking the Myths and Unveiling the Future The short answer is no, Greyhound is not going out of business. While the iconic bus line has faced significant challenges and undergone major changes in recent years, including an acquisition by FlixMobility, it continues to operate and evolve in the face of a shifting transportation landscape. However, understanding the full picture requires delving into its history, recent developments, and the broader context of the intercity bus travel industry.

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed a disaster declaration over SNAP funding, which is in danger of being cut off on Saturday due to the federal government shutdown. What the declaration does The declaration makes $5 million in state money immediately available to food banks. Shapiro made the announcement at a Friday afternoon news conference in Philadelphia. You can watch his complete remarks in the video player above. "Nearly two million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP every month — and they shouldn’t have to wonder where their next meal will come from because of the dysfunction in Washington," Shapiro...

House Speaker Mike Johnson erupted in frustration Thursday after learning that Democrat-led states filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for attempting to determine how many illegal aliens are receiving taxpayer-funded welfare benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At a press conference alongside USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, Johnson blasted Senate Democrats for prioritizing “political theater” over feeding American families as the government shutdown stretched into its 31st day. “They sued the USDA for asking them, simply asking them to tell them how many illegal aliens are on the programs in California, New York, and these...

A Native American tribe seized a Minnesota pilot's plane after he made an emergency landing on their land, citing a decades–old law the tribe claimed gave them control of the aircraft. Darrin Smedsmo was flying over the Red Lake Indian Reservation when his single–engine Stinson airplane suddenly stopped working mid–air. With less than three minutes until disaster, the experienced pilot was forced to land on a paved state road below. Moments later, Smedsmo's plane was confiscated by tribal police, who claimed he did not have the authority to fly it over their reservation. If he wants his plane back, he...

https://babylonbee.com/news/in-toughest-survival-challenge-yet-bear-grylls-attempts-to-survive-weekend-in-chicagoCHICAGO, IL — In a new television special, survivalist icon and TV host Bear Grylls was set to embark on his most daring survival challenge yet as he attempts to survive a weekend in Chicago. "The city skyline is beautiful, but when you're down on the street, it's one of the most dangerous environments on earth," Grylls said in a teaser for the episode. "Everything — and everyone — is trying to kill you." The former host of Man vs. Wild has conquered jungles, summited Mount Everest, survived temperatures of up to 122° F in the Sahara Desert, and even...

Senator Ron Johnson underlines a key point being missed by many. All of the revelations about the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump and his supporters, are being provided by evidence carried to congress by DOJ/FBI “whistleblowers.”Pause and reflect on that observation for a few moments. The public awareness of political targeting by the DOJ/FBI is coming from ‘whistleblowers’ to Senator Chuck Grassley. It is not Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel bringing forward the information about the weaponized use of their institutions.If Pam Bondi and Kash Patel were in control of the root systems within...

Decades of big spending, new federal funding cuts and a changing view of higher education created a perfect storm; ‘Spending Your Tuition On Its Mistakes’The school that produced Milton Friedman and 34 other Nobel Prize-winning economists is struggling to manage its pocketbook. The University of Chicago ran budget deficits for 14 years straight, spending big on new labs, dorms and technology to raise its profile and enrollment. Now it’s facing a financial reckoning. Over the summer, university leaders said they needed to cut $100 million in expenses. They decided to slow tenure-track hiring, scale back new construction and pause admissions...

The FBI hauled in five suspects Friday, shutting down what officials say was a Halloween-weekend terror plot in Michigan with ties to ISIS. “This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X. Federal agents grabbed the suspects in Dearborn and Inkster, according to three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the case. Investigators say the group discussed launching an attack around Halloween — a date they allegedly called “pumpkin day.” Authorities moved before anyone could strike, though...

Zohran Mamdani's campaign is facing explosive allegations that it benefited from tens of millions of dollars in donations funneled from George Soros-linked charities as part of an elaborate scheme that may have violated federal tax laws. The 34-year-old State Assemblyman's team has always claimed that he rose from obscurity to become New York City's mayoral front-runner thanks to an organic, grassroots movement involving many small donations and hundreds of young people with backpacks canvassing on his behalf. But the Daily Mail can reveal that that narrative is now being called into question according to a report from a watchdog website....

In July 2024, I flew to a pop-up city named Vitalia that aimed to “make death optional.” Situated in the heart of a special economic zone on Roatan, a Honduran island, Vitalia advertised itself as a place to fast-track drug research outside of America’s burdensome regulatory constraints.The AI-generated pictures I’d seen made it look sleek and futuristic, like a cross between South Beach Miami and The Jetsons. Since its launch seven months before, Vitalia had attracted scientists, entrepreneurs, and crypto enthusiasts—among them longevity guru Bryan Johnson and Balaji S. Srinivasan, the author of The Network State. The special economic zone...

A key strategy in the Trump administration’s crackdown on gender medicine is identifying and prosecuting insurance fraud. A common form of potential billing fraud involves use of the diagnosis “Endocrine Disorder Not Otherwise Specified” (E34.9 in the International Classification of Diseases handbook), instead of “Gender Identity Disorders” (F64), for patients who do not have or are not being treated for endocrine disorders. Critics of gender medicine might argue that fraud exists even with appropriate diagnostic coding. The “gender dysphoria” diagnosis, the reasoning goes, was created in 2013 for the purpose of ensuring insurance coverage for medical interventions.Finally, a reason to...

A mass email sent Friday to the University of Pennsylvania community called the Ivy League school an “elitist institution” with terrible security practices, according to a copy of the email shared with PennLive. The email, sent on Penn Graduate School of Education (GSE) letterhead, also included expletives and a slur, and said UPenn “love[s] breaking federal laws.” “We hire and admit morons because we love legacies, donors, and unqualified affirmative action admits,” the email reads in part.